Slow Feet, Quick Feet, Well Feet, Sick Feet

Exercise: rest and healing

So I'm down and out due to my big toe. It's crazy how something as insignificant as a toe can completely derail plans. It's just an ingrown toenail but I wasn't smart and continued to run on it hoping it would just go away on it's own. No such luck. It got super infected and ridiculously painful. Nice.

So now, no running or heavy workouts for me for 10 days or until the infection is gone. Luckily I can still use the elliptical or I might lose my mind. I have surgery to completely stop ingrown toenails, because I'm prone to them, scheduled for mid November. This is immediately following the marathon, but if the toe doesn't heal I have to move the surgery up and it has about a 4 week healing time. It depresses me just thinking about it.

The good news is I LOVE my doctor! I have an HMO so was just randomly assigned a specialist but he couldn't be a better fit. He explained to me that surgery was imminent but respected my wishes to hold off until post marathon. Then he asked how many marathons I had run and how many more I planned to run. I told him I was hoping to move onto ultras and he asked if I had any interest in running Badwater!?!? I have never had a casual conversation with someone that randomly brought up Badwater. It's on my bucket list so I found it so cool.

It ends up he's an ultra hiker, often logging 30+ mile days. He's hiked Whitney Portal where Badwater ends and he's done many hikes along the PCT which I found extra interesting because I'm currently reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed (and loving it.) He even stopped in the middle of the appointment to give me camping and hiking tips which eased the pain of having my toe poked :) He stopped cutting into my toe to google this:

Source

He was great at distracting from my pain. 

The lame news, besides my toe sucking, is I may have to drop from the full Malibu Marathon to the half or drop out all together depending on my dang toe. I hope to maintain my fitness with the elliptical but am not looking forward to being stuck inside indefinitely. I'm sure I'm being a tad dramatic but that's how I roll. 

Hope you all are having a rad weekend!